The One
by nikki-of-stormhold
Summary: Alice sees that either Esme or Bella will die within the next two days. Edward, Carlisle and the rest of the Cullens fight to find out who will make the decision, and to stop them and save the ones they love.


This is something completely from inside my head

**This is something completely from inside my head. Obviously not the Twilight characters and stuff, that isn't, but I like to combine my imagination and those of others. It's an Esme story, because there isn't enough of it.**

**The One**

"Alice?" I waved a hand in front of my sister's face, a concerned.

"Leave her alone, she'll tell you when she snaps out of it," Emmett threw himself onto the sofa opposite us.

"She's not usually out for this long."

Alice didn't move or blink, just stared straight ahead blankly. No, that was the problem- she wasn't blank. Usually when she saw things, things that were going to happen, she was blank faced and emotionless, but this time was different. I suppose that's what got the alarm bells going. She looked… frightened. She was clearly concentrating, but on something unpleasant.

"Emmett I'm serious. Get Jasper."

He knew by my tone that I wasn't playing around, and left the room at lightning speed. Before I had time to think about it he was back with Jasper, both of them looking as worried as I felt. Jasper sat down next to Alice and looked at me.

"What's wrong with her? She's not usually like this. Its like…"

"Its like the future is hurting her," I finished his sentence for her. Jasper looked from me to Alice, and reached out to touch her arm lightly. She jolted violently and ended up sprawled across Jasper, her face hidden. He propped her up and put his hands on her shoulders in an attempt to steady her.

"Alice? Are you ok? What? What is it?"

She was shaking, her eyes darting from face to face and then around the room and out of the windows.

"Esme, where is Esme?"

We looked at each other, confused.

"She, Rosalie and Bella are in town," I said, looking at her through narrowed eyes.

"Alice? What did you see?"

She grabbed Jasper, who pulled her onto his lap and tried to calm her down. I perched on the end of the sofa and Emmett folded his arms, standing in the doorway.

"Edward, leave it for a moment," Jasper said, Alice clinging to his shirt. If she had been capable of sobbing I'm sure she would have done.

"Get Carlisle," I whispered to Emmett. This was the down side of being able to read minds. I got access to the bad news before everyone else. Not as fast as Alice, but quicker than the others. And this was bad.

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Carlisle strode calmly into the living room and looked around at us. He was always so damned calm- no trace of fear or distress ever tainted his young face. It hurt me to know that that would change very shortly. We must have looked a picture- I almost chuckled as I looked around too. Four vampires in various stages of worry, one curled up and clinging to her mate as if he'd be gone the next minute, one pacing up and down in frustration, me looking like the world had come to an end- well, it would end for Carlisle when he found out what I knew, what Alice had seen. In a very few minutes his world was going to collapse. I considered lying to him- telling him it was a false alarm, that everything was ok and that Alice had it all wrong. But I knew I wasn't composed enough to pull it off. I loved her as a mother and it was hurting me too. Unbearably so. And he could see it.

"Edward?" his voice was quiet, and there was a very serious, wary tone to it.

I walked slowly to the window and looked out- this would be easier if I didn't have to look at him.

"Edward No! You can't tell him!" Alice shot up out of her seat, Jasper only just catching her as she lunged at me. He grabbed her around the waist and pulled her back down onto his lap. She struggled but he controlled her easily.

"He has a right to know Alice. We all do."

Carlisle folded his arms and looked at me straight.

"Edward?" he repeated, and I thought I heard a hint of fear. I couldn't keep it from him any longer.

"Alice saw something."

"I gathered that. Just tell me."

I tried to think of words, words to make this sound less harsh, to paint it a bit less dark. But that just wasn't possible.

"It's Esme."

He gripped his own arms with his hands as they were folded, a muscle twitching in his cheek.

"What about her?"

"She…. Alice saw her…. Saw her die."

There was silence. No one moved, nobody spoke. We all just stared, from Alice to Carlisle and back to Alice. I couldn't look at him.

"He hasn't told you all of it." Alice whispered, staring at me with clenched fists and an almost sorry look. I hadn't heard her think anymore. How could she know more and not have revealed it to me? She had been practicing it lately but not that successfully. I was about to comment when she let down the guard that had been shielding whatever further information she had from me. I heard her think it, loud and clear, and she knew she had straightaway. She looked at me, panic on her face. Not as much as I felt.

"No," I said, not looking at her. She was wrong. Her talent was not always accurate, and if I didn't listen, then it wouldn't be true. It couldn't be true. There was absolutely no way I was even going to go there. No way.

"Edward, I'm sorry…."

"I said NO!"

I shouted louder than I though I could, and everyone flinched, all except Carlisle. He just stood, motionless. Watching me. It was like he knew, or could hear Alice too.

"What is it Alice? Emmett asked, unable to hear her like me.

"Its nothing," I snarled. "She has it all wrong."

"Do you think I want this Edward? Do you think I want to lose either of them?"

Jasper and Emmet look up sharply, to Alice, then to me. Carlisle looked down.

"What? Either of who?" Jasper said, alarm very present in his voice.

Alice gasped hysterically.

"Esme… or Bella."

Again silence. For them, anyway. In my world everything was chaotic. Hearing her name, alongside Esme's with that fate ahead of them….. It hit me harder than anything I have ever experienced. Even harder than the first time I ever caught her scent. At least when I wanted to eat her I had control over whether she lived or died. As much as I told myself that Alice wasn't always _always_ right, the sickening dread and fear would not go away. I knew, somewhere in the depths of my being, that she was right this time. And so did Carlisle. His eyes gave him away- he could no more look at me than I could at him. Still no-one spoke. What could they possibly say? The medley of emotion- emotion that I shouldn't be worthy of feeling- was so strong that it almost engulfed me there and then. I felt like yelling, screaming, smashing things, ripping throats out, you name it I felt it. She couldn't be right. If she was, Bella- my Bella…….. I'd lose her forever. And that I just could not stand. Vampire or not.

"Wait…." Alice sat forward.

There couldn't be more surely? What more could there be that possibly mattered? Nothing more interested me except Bella. My world simply did not involve anything else. But then….. Esme. My mother, or the closest I had to one. I should be feeling something for her, surely? But Bella was all that consumed my thoughts.

"What?" Carlisle could barely speak.

"It's only one of them," Alice whispered. "I saw them both, but only one of them will…" she couldn't say it. I couldn't handle this. Jasper asked what we were all thinking.

"Which one?"

She shook her head.

"I don't know, there has to be a decision," she said, her head in her hands.

"A decision?" Emmett looked confused. "You mean some bastard has control over this?"

She shook her head again, but not in a way that meant 'no.'

"Somebody does….. I …. I can't... I don't know who."

Something began to bubble inside of me, and it took a few moments to get it under enough control to be able to tell what it was. Fury. Someone was in control of whether the only thing that mattered to me remained in my world.

"When?" Jasper whispered, taking Alice's hand and gripping it.

"Two days."

There was a short pause again whilst we all tried to digest what we facing. I didn't try- I knew there was no way on earth that I would ever be able to accept this. I looked at Carlisle- he had sat down, and had his head in his hands. He looked up, and into my eyes. As I looked into his I could see that we were both feeling the same unbearable pain at the prospect of losing out soul mates.

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So that was it. Esme or Bella. My mother or my lover. I would lose one of them very soon and had no idea which one. I had almost lost Bella once and knew that I simply couldn't survive if this were to happen again. But looking at my father- the most impressive, kind hearted, wonderful vampire any of us had ever seen, how could I wish it upon him to be in the same position so that I wouldn't have to? And on that point, I loved Esme as much but in a different way. This could not be happening. And, watching Carlisle come slowly undone right in front of me, I knew that I would not let it. There had to be a way around this. Alice said a decision had to be made- I had to days to find and destroy the person who would make that decision. I had my family, and for the next two days I had my life support- my Bella. I'd be damned if I was going to live through this without trying to stop it. While I had the time and the ability, I was going to do everything within my power to prevent the loss of one of two people that I loved more than anything else in the cruel world I was forced to live in.


End file.
